All our student interns have the unique opportunity to access the APPF’s cutting-edge phenotyping capabilities at no cost, learning about experimental design, and image and data anaylsis in plant phenomics while undertaking collaborative projects with the highly skilled APPF team. This experience allows our next generation of aspiring plant scientists to explore key research questions, reveal new data and make a real contribution to the global challenge of feeding future generations.

Yue Qu (Julian) with his soybean plants in an automated, high-throughput plant phenotyping Smarthouse at the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility’s Adelaide node

Yue Qu (Julian)

In his project ‘Investigating novel mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in soybean’ Julian seeks to answer two questions, (1) Does GmSALT3, a protein linked to improved salt tolerance, also confer tolerance to drought and oxidative stress in soybean, and (2) Does GmSALT3 improve growth under standard conditions. He will use a non-destructive, high-throughput plant phenotyping Smarthouse, hyperspectral leaf phenotyping, leaf ion content, ROS activity/detoxification of roots, and gas exchange to investigate 8 lines of soybean in combination with 4 treatments (control, drought, 100mM NaCl, 150mM NaCl).

“For my PhD I have been functionally characterising GmSALT3. I have used heterologous expression systems to examine transport activity, as well as phenotyping salt tolerance in the NILs,” said Julian.

However, more recent phenotyping data and RNA-seq analysis has led us to the hypothesis that the salt tolerance phenotype of GmSALT3 plants is a consequence of their improved ability to detoxify reactive oxygen species, and therefore they may be more stress tolerant in general. This is contrary to the prevailing hypothesis that the protein is directly involved in salt transport and directly, rather than indirectly confers salt exclusion. To test this hypothesis we need to properly phenotype the Near Isogenic Lines (NILs). We believe that the phenotyping capabilities of the APPF will give unparalleled insights into the stress tolerance of soybean that would not otherwise be possible. Such a finding will be a significant breakthrough and likely result in a high impact publication when added to our existing data.”

Supervisor, Professor Matthew Gilliham, from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology agreed. “The experience the APPF team offer while conducting these experiments will add a great deal to the impact of the papers Julian is preparing and reveal a new layer of complexity that would not be possible without their expertise.”

Daniel Menadue watches over his wheat plants in a Smarthouse at the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility’s Adelaide node

Daniel Menadue

Daniel is investigating a proton pumping pyrophosphatase (PPase) gene family in wheat and the role these genes play in the wheat plant’s response to environmental stress in and enhancing yield.

Vacuolar pyrophosphatase have been known for a while to be involved in a plant’s adaptation to the environment, however, the majority of the work on these genes has been using the gene from Arabidopsis, AVP1. Daniel’s research has identified the 12 wheat orthologs of AVP1 and from the sequence and expression data he has to date, he hypothesises that different PPases have different roles depending on their protein sequence and tissue localisation. To this end Daniel has generated transgenic bread wheat, cv Fielder, expressing two of the wheat genes (TaVP1-B and TaVP2-B) to further characterise the role of the PPase protein. Excitingly, Daniel has observed a growth phenotype, in the second generation of transgenic plants, with the transgenic plants appearing to grow faster and have larger biomass than wild type or null segregant plants. This is a phenotype previously seen in transgenic barley expressing the Arabidopsis AVP1 gene, plants which went on to show enhanced yield under salinity in the field (Schilling et al. 2014, Plant Biotech J.).

Given the very promising phenotype of these lines, Daniel will dissect this mechanism further using the non-destructive imaging capabilities at the APPF as an ideal platform for such experiments. He will investigate when the transgenic lines exhibit their enhanced growth, dissect whether they grow faster throughout the vegetative period or just for a short while at the start of their growth. He will also investigate the possibilities of following the growth of leaves through time and determine if the plants have enhanced resistance to salinity tolerance.

“In many ways we would like to replicate the study that we did in one of the APPF’s Adelaide Smarthouses which produced the barley data for the Schilling et al. 2014 paper, but in much more detail and using wheat plants with wheat genes,” said supervisor, Dr Stuart Roy from the University of Adelaide’s School of Agriculture, Food and Wine.

Internships are offered at the APPF in Adelaide and Canberra for enthusiastic, highly motivated postgraduate students with a real interest in our research and technology. Current postgraduate students in the following areas are encouraged to apply:

Agriculture

Bioinformatics

Biology

Biotechnology

Computer Science

Genetics

Mathematics

Plant physiology

Science

Software engineering

Statistics

Interstate students are strongly encouraged to apply!

We offer postgraduate internship grants which, in general, comprise:

$1,500 maximum towards accommodation in Adelaide or Canberra, if required

$500 maximum towards travel / airfare, if required

$10,000 maximum toward infrastructure use

The APPF has identified a number of priority research areas, each reflecting a global challenge and the role that advances in plant biology can play in providing a solution:

Tolerance to abiotic stress

Improving resource use efficiency in plants

Statistics and biometry

Application of mechatronic engineering to plant phenotyping

Application of image analysis techniques to understanding plant form and function

Students proposing other topics will also be considered.

APPF postgraduate internship grants involve access to the facility’s phenotyping capabilities to undertake collaborative projects and to work as an intern with the APPF team to learn about experimental design, image and data analysis in plant phenomics.

Selection is based on merit. Applications are assessed on the basis of academic record, research experience and appropriateness of the proposed research topic. Interviews may be conducted.

Postgraduate students are encouraged to contact APPF staff prior to submitting their application to discuss possible projects.